Khawaja along with Carey Rise to Plug the Voids as England Waste Their Gifts
Chalk it up to destiny, fortune, or a oddity of probability, depending on your inclination. If Australia's opening day in Adelaide was a jigsaw puzzle tossed into the air, the majority of the pieces landed the right way up and in the right place. It's been a recurring pattern for the home side in this series: dominated by England's attack in Perth, only to orchestrate an even greater implosion; stumbling in Brisbane, rescued by the lower order.
Once again, the pattern continued: be it dodgy fielding or unreliable equipment, things keep falling into place for the home team.
The tourists, meanwhile, brought a gameplan built on the belief that they couldn't win in Australia with pace bowlers and a wicketkeeper up to the stumps, then proceeded to be defeated by medium-fast seamers with a wicketkeeper up to the stumps. England was handed the advantage of a missing Pat Cummins, no Josh Hazlewood, no Nathan Lyon and yet managed to suffer two defeats in six days. Their third encounter brought the next gift: Steve Smith missing with an ailment, their own personal Ghost of Ashes Past substituted in the batting lineup by a creaking, squinting opener whom Australia had previously attempted to drop.
Out of politeness, England felt compelled to drop him too. At slip, on just five, when the score would have been 50 for three. A couple of hours before, Usman Khawaja's Test future had been all but finished, with selectors unveiling a new option called the Travis Head Dashing Opener™. Two hours later, Khawaja had been given two lives, initially by Smith's balance issues, then by Harry Brook's lack of balance at slip.
A Liberated Innings from the Number Five
The move down the order had only spared him a brief period at the top, but that ensured he almost entirely dodged Jofra Archer's fierce first spell, a possibly decisive non-matchup given Khawaja's recent struggles against quality pace. Liberated, with little on the line, Khawaja played perhaps his most fluent and confident knock since his last comeback through the middle order in 2022.
The other seamer was not much slower than Archer, but Khawaja picked off his mistakes while using Ben Stokes's bouncer to get his signature pull shot going. He identified Will Jacks's vulnerability as a day-one spinner and thumped him accordingly. There was a half century after lunch, amid a crucial partnership with Alex Carey after some Christmas giveaways.
While Steve Smith is Australia's best bat in historical context, Alex Carey could be their most convincing one right this moment, after his second century this year.
A Chance That Slipped Away, but Influence Made
There remains a good chance of this being Khawaja's final match, with Smith to return and the rest of the order unlikely to change, so a century that could have been both comeback and farewell would have been one hell of a story. But pushing against late-career limitations left it just out of reach. A legendary captain in his last Test was raging against the end, dreaming of one last ton, out instead slog-sweeping a spinner to the boundary. Khawaja, six months older, was out slog-sweeping a spinner to deep midwicket for 82.
Nevertheless, it was pivotal for the team, and another example of how discombobulation hasn't bothered these Australians. Lose your best bat minutes before the match? The stand-in has it covered. A unorthodox lineup to follow? No problem either.
The Wicketkeeper's Local Heroics
Carey as wicketkeeper would usually bat at No 7, while the plan at the outset was to bed in Cameron Green at No 6. The spot created by Travis Head's move was at No 5. And yet, instead of filling that gap, Australia brought him in at No 7 and promoted Green and Carey a place.
It seems conventional about placing an active wicketkeeper ahead of an off-duty one, but on this day it proved effective, maybe because Carey was fresh in the first innings. He secured the hundred that Khawaja was denied, scoring in his usual enterprising way, creating a massive Adelaide moment as hometown crowds swelled the ground.
In the end, he guided Australia's total from 85 when he arrived to 321 when he was dismissed, and more might be added for the tail on the second morning. Smith was absent, five of the leading batters made insignificant contributions, yet Australia are still on top, with far more runs than looked likely at multiple points.
The visitors' sole route to change that is a brute-force response: take two wickets, bat for a long time in the scorching conditions. Any other approach leaves it up to chance, or fortune, or a twist of probability. Don't trust such things.